It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized online publishing. Now, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between blogs and websites. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of web design and also being able to tell what kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that many website owners are concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you picked web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use other web editor tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS platform suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of HTML to use and manage, and offers many helpful add-ons that make your web site highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other website application.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
Look At Your Source Code
If you know how to access the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view your page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your website is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your website was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the template has not been customized, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that lets you easily check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown below …
To visit this site, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
It’s also a very easy add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To learn more, go here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, visit the site below:
We hope you have found this tutorial useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group